Officials tour one of largest development projects in Northern California

Concord Vice Mayor Ron Leone hosted a tour of the former Concord Naval Weapons station for almost three dozen elected officials from cities in the East Bay on July 27. Leone is president of the League of California Cities East Bay Division, which was holding a meeting in Concord to discuss issues of shared importance to municipalities.

The redevelopment of the 5,000-plus acre site represents one of the largest mixed-use, transit-oriented community development opportunities in Northern California. With build-out over the next 30 years, development of the site will include over 12,000 housing units, 6 million square feet of commercial space, a site for an educational institution, a major sports tournament complex, and a regional park.

“I wanted to share our vision for the future of the base with my League of California Cities partners,” said Leone. “The size and scope of this project will have positive impacts beyond Concord. This tour gives our regional neighbors and partners a preview of what to expect as we develop the site over the next few decades.”

The City started planning for the reuse of the site with the community in 2006. In 2012, the City Council officially adopted the Concord Reuse Project Area Plan and recently selected Lennar Concord as the developer for the first phase of the project. The property is still owned by the Navy with the first parcels of land expected to transfer in 2017.

The Area Plan calls for approximately 65 percent of the property to be trails, parks and open space. The East Bay Regional Park District is planning for the 2,700-acre Concord Hills Regional Park on the property that will provide open space, hiking trails, picnic areas, a visitors’ center and other passive-use amenities.

At the same time, the City is partnering with the Contra Costa Transportation Authority to use the vacant property temporarily as the connected vehicle (CV) and autonomous vehicle (AV) GoMentum Station test site - the largest in the world. The defunct base has over 20 miles of paved roadways, including a seven-mile straightaway for high speed testing. Honda is testing its new technology on the site; this summer, driverless shuttles that will ferry passengers around Bishop Ranch in San Ramon will be tested.